Posts by John DeFerrari

John DeFerrari is a native Washingtonian with a lifelong passion for local history and writes about it for his blog, Streets Of Washington. His latest book about DC history is Capital Streetcars: Early Mass Transit in Washington, DC. John is also a trustee of the DC Preservation League. The views expressed here are his own.

The DC Streetcar will start carrying passengers on Saturday, but that won’t be the first time we’ve seen a streetcar’s opening day. DC’s first streetcar system opened in the middle of the Civil War after taking only six months to build. It ran horse-drawn streetcars along Pennsylvania Avenue, and was an instant hit. Keep reading…

DC got its first electric streetcar in 1888 when the Eckington & Soldiers Home Railway went into operation. A ban on overhead wires kept it from running downtown, and the company ultimately went out of business because it couldn’t find another option.
I recently wrote about the 100-year history of streetcars in the District, from 1862 to 1962 (the span from the first… Keep reading…

The city’s historic structures were built from materials as unique to their age and as varied as the architectural styles used to mold them into buildings. Those materials often have their own rich stories to tell, as Garrett Peck ably demonstrates in his lively new book, The Smithsonian Castle and the Seneca Quarry.
Seneca sandstone has a lot going for it. In addition to… Keep reading…

With 2 annual conferences that recognize, analyze, share, and discuss our city’s recorded and built history, October is a de facto DC History Month. Come November, the Washington Historical Society will turn a page in its own history as it re-opens in the old Carnegie Library.
The DC Preservation League’s Citywide Preservation Conference is on Friday, October… Keep reading…

A statue of Frederick Douglass (c. 1818-1895), the most famous African-American of the 19th century, will soon be added to or near Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol to represent the District of Columbia. It’s a notable and long overdue recognition for both Douglass and the District.
John Muller, a journalist and Greater Greater Washington contributor, has meticulously… Keep reading…

The 1830s are not a well-known period in Washington’s history. Too late for L’Enfant and too early for Lincoln, they are a mystery to most residents. But hiding beneath the quiet surface were rising racial tensions, as vividly described in Jefferson Morley’s new book, Snow-Storm in August.
Morley brings the 1830s to life with an account of dramatic events… Keep reading…

On the northeast corner of 11th and K Streets NW stands the last dilapi­dated vestiges of what K Street was once all about—large, elegant Victorian mansions that were the homes of the city’s most powerful and influential citizens. For the last 7 years, the mansion at 1017 K has been quietly crumbling behind the humiliating wrap of a massive fabric billboard.
It’s… Keep reading…

It was a sad day in Washington in August 1981, when The Washington Star ceased publication after more than 128 years of service.
The Star‘s tenure had stretched back before the Civil War, an amazing run that witnessed the historic sweep of the city’s development from small town to sophisticated metropolis. “The Rock of Gibraltar in Washington journalism… Keep reading…

The Ontario Theatre at 17th Street and Columbia Road NW has been neglected, abused even, for many years, and it hasn’t functioned as a movie theater in more than two decades. Although it takes some imagination to see what its possibilities are, one thing is certain: the theater has a long cultural legacy that will be lost if the building is demolished.
As I recently detailed… Keep reading…

The Heights of Georgetown, along Q Street and above, are filled with the elegant homes of well-to-do Washingtonians. Most are still in private hands, but several beautiful public museums stand out.
Dumbarton Oaks, owned by Harvard University and famous for its gardens and art collections, is a sprawling research and museum complex with a Federal-style house embedded in its… Keep reading…

The Armed Forces Retirement Home, known for many years as the Soldiers’ Home, is tucked away on a beautiful campus near North Capitol Street in upper northwest Washington.
This past week’s earthquake did substantial damage—millions of dollars worth—to one of the most distinctive and iconic buildings on the entire campus, Scott Hall (now known as… Keep reading…

Restaurants come and go by the dozens in Washington. Only a few survive through the years as bona fide local institutions. One that did was Hammel’s, a German restaurant that stood for decades on 10th Street downtown, across from where the FBI Building now menacingly looms.
It was hidden within a drab, not-particularly-inviting storefront, but perhaps the nondescript… Keep reading…

The Gilded Age, from the 1870s until the 1910s, was a unique period in Washington’s history. The city attracted many nouveaux riches who were drawn by the fact that upper-class Washington society in those days was wide open to anyone with lots of money, a circumstance not found in other major Eastern cities.
Of all the wealthy people who moved to Washington to exert power… Keep reading…

One of the most elegant storefronts in Chinatown is the broad and richly ornamented terra cotta façade of the R.F.D. Washington restaurant at 810 7th Street NW. This building was once the pride and joy of Henry King, Jr. (1834-1897), one of Washington’s most prominent retailers in the late 19th century.
Henry King was born in the spa town of Baden-Baden in western Germany. Keep reading…

Victor Justice Evans (1865-1931) was one of those wonderful self-made men of the last century who put his nose to the grindstone as a young man, made tons of money, and then fulfilled the American dream by happily indulging his many and diverse eccentricities.
While largely forgotten now, Evans left one enduring landmark in downtown Washington: the Victor Building at 9th Street… Keep reading…

Magnificent Union Station, opened in 1907, was designed as a ceremonial gateway to Washington, welcoming visitors from far and wide.
In the decades after it was built, countless thousands of newcomers got off their trains and wandered out on to the plaza in front of the station in search of a place to stay. Of the many hotels that were built in the immediate vicinity to accommodate… Keep reading…

Much of DC’s Chinatown is about symbols. The neighborhood is small and fragile, seemingly forever on the brink of extinction. Its identity hinges on a smattering of things Chinese: the restaurants (of course), the red and green lampposts, the Chinese characters on street signs.
But without a doubt the most striking and enduring symbol of all is the great Friendship Archway,… Keep reading…

Ninth Street NW, the blocks just north of Pennsylvania Avenue: Today they’re lined with rows of the same nondescript office buildings you see everywhere else downtown. And then there’s that hulking FBI building on the west side. But it wasn’t always like this.
A hundred years ago this was where the action was. “Ninth Street was the Broadway of Washington,”… Keep reading…

Churches are one of the biggest challenges for historic preservation. They are such unique structures and so poorly suited to be anything but what they are. What happens when a congregation outgrows its building and wants to move on?
In some cases, old churches downtown have been preserved because they were taken over by other religious groups. Several downtown landmarks have… Keep reading…

Decatur House, located at the northwest corner of Lafayette Square, became a focal point for Washington society as soon as it was constructed for naval hero Stephen Decatur (1779-1820) in 1819. Designed for entertainment, the house has had a long career as the backdrop for both social triumph and personal tragedy.
Keep reading…